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Skazki, Op 8

Introduction

It was Medtner’s lifelong friend and admirer Sergei Rachmaninov who famously remarked: ‘Only Medtner has, from the beginning, published works that it would be hard for him to equal in later life.’ The first pair of Skazki, Op 8, finds Medtner already at the height of his powers. Immediately striking is their use of a common motto to open and close both pieces. This sort of thing raises alarm in the analytically minded but, according to Medtner, is of no great significance; but it does make the pair uncommonly effective when performed in tandem. This idiosyncrasy apart, the two could hardly be more disparate in character. Some dark shadows notwithstanding, the first, alternately gnomic and lyrical, does nothing to forewarn us of the violence to follow. This second piece, Op 8 No 2, is one of Medtner’s masterpieces, a sonata movement of formidable complexity and panache. All his prodigious and precocious skills of form and content, rhythm and harmony, motif and melody are displayed with flawless mastery and pianistic ingenuity. Some of the expression marks—pleading, chaotic, suffocated, threatening—suggest (unusually for Medtner) an almost Scriabinesque frenzy. This was as ‘modern’ as he ever got—and at twenty-five years of age.

Recordings

'I can only agree with the superlatives Hamelin has garnered from so many other reviewers. His technique is unsurpassed by any pianist of any era ...'Hamelin's transcendental technique is breathtaking in the bravura numbers, and he is even more compelling in the reflective numbers, such as Two Tale ...» More

'A set that does deserve celebration. Indispensable to all lovers of Medtner's subtle and enriching art … superlatively played and presented. Suc ...'Hamelin and everyone involved with the production of this release deserves the highest praise' (Fanfare, USA)» More

'They're among [Medtner's] characteristic utterances and include many of his finest inspirations. Some are simply masterpieces … it's excellent t ...'From the very first of these skazki ('tales'), I was hooked. Much of this is to do with the advocacy of Hamish Milne, who has already recorded some o ...» More

Details

The two Op 8 Märchen share the same key (C minor) and some of the same material, most obviously the sequence of five cadential chords with which both pieces open and close. The first has a malevolent air throughout, with the music finally slipping sinisterly away into darkness (‘tenebroso’). The second, a much more complex composition, is cast in sonata form. The opening theme is an example of Medtner’s rhythmic inventiveness, the division of its 8/8 metre into 3, 3, 2 syncopated across the bar line charging it with enormous energy and impetus. This and the plaintive second theme are developed in order to a central climax, the nature of whose culmination is indicated by a sequence of characteristically idiosyncratic expression markings: ‘pregando’ (‘prayerfully’), ‘minaccioso’ (‘threateningly’), ‘soffocando’ (‘as though choking’), and finally ‘haotico’ (‘chaotically’). After the recapitulation a tempestuous coda, rounded off by the introductory cadence, curt and final, completes a composition of extraordinary originality and power, one that utterly confounds the notion of Medtner’s being nothing more than an unregenerative reactionary. No wonder the work was much admired by the young Prokofiev.

The two Op 8 Märchen share the same key (C minor) and some of the same material, most obviously the sequence of five cadential chords with which both pieces open and close. The first has a malevolent air throughout, with the music finally slipping sinisterly away into darkness (‘tenebroso’). The second, a much more complex composition, is cast in sonata form. The opening theme is an example of Medtner’s rhythmic inventiveness, the division of its 8/8 metre into 3, 3, 2 syncopated across the bar line charging it with enormous energy and impetus. This and the plaintive second theme are developed in order to a central climax, the nature of whose culmination is indicated by a sequence of characteristically idiosyncratic expression markings: ‘pregando’ (‘prayerfully’), ‘minaccioso’ (‘threateningly’), ‘soffocando’ (‘as though choking’), and finally ‘haotico’ (‘chaotically’). After the recapitulation a tempestuous coda, rounded off by the introductory cadence, curt and final, completes a composition of extraordinary originality and power, one that utterly confounds the notion of Medtner’s being nothing more than an unregenerative reactionary. No wonder the work was much admired by the young Prokofiev.